Easy Virtue (1928)

From the play by Noel Coward. Remade with more comedy in 2008 with Jessica
Biehl.

It opens with a scandalous divorce trial. Larita's drunken husband has
objected to the attentions a painter pays to her. The painter commits
suicide. After the divorce she flees to the Riviera and marries a younger man
who takes her home to a big house in the country. His mother is less than
pleased and when they discover her history -- hoo, boy. She makes a flashy
exit from the family but the only way to grant a divorce is with another
scandalous trial. Without no-fault, she has to pretend to be congenitally
adulterous. No happy ending for her.

It's pretty stiff and uninvolving. Some interesting Riviera locations and
painterly-like compositions, but little else. In one good bit we see the
progress of the marriage proposal through the excited responses of an
eavesdropping telephone operator.